Todo Backup now has two types of backup: System-level and file-level backup. System-level backup allows users to backup whole partitions and/or hard drives; all the files in the selected partitions/hard drives are backed up and the backup is always a full backup. File-level backup allows users to pick select files and folders to backup; there are filters users can use to help them select particular types of files and users can either do a full backup or an incremental backup. Both system-level and file-level backups are “image backups” – they are stored in .PDB format and can only be restored from within Todo Backup.

Only system-level backup archives can be converted to .VMDK or .VHD virtual machines.

The Linux-based bootable media is limited in what it can do; it can only restore system-level backups. It cannot create any backups, nor can you use the other features of Todo Backup, like clone hard drive or securely wipe.

Todo Backup v1 supported both WinPE and Linux-based bootable media. It appears Todo Backup v2 also supports WinPE and Linux-based bootable media (there is a WinPE folder in Todo Backup’s installation folder) but there is no information regarding how to create this WinPE bootable media. The Linux-based bootable media is created from the “Bootable media builder” located within Todo Backup.

When restoring a system-level backup of a partition, you can resize the partition.

When restoring a file-level backup, you can restore all the files/folders that were backed up, or you can selectively restore only some of them. (Restoring system-level backups are an all-or-nothing ordeal – no selective picking.)

You can only mount system-level backups; you cannot mount file-level backups. Furthermore, when mounted, you can open/run and use any of the files in the backup; you can also copy them to your real hard drive. However, you cannot modify the files in any way, such as delete, rename, or move them. So, essentially when you have a system-level backup mounted, it is in “read-only” mode.

The “Disk clone” feature allows users to migrate from one hard drive to another without having to reinstall the operating system. In other words, “Disk clone” allows you to take the data from one hard drive and put it it on another; and the two hard drives don’t have to be the same size.

Update: Do take note that migration from one hard drive to another is intended for hard drives that will be used on the same computer. In other words, this feature isn’t for using the destination hard drive on another computer that has different hardware.

Both cloning partitions/hard drives and restoring system-level backups can be done in “sector by sector” mode.

Update: It has been brought to my attention that EASEUS Todo Backup v2 uses VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) when conducting file-level backups, but it does not use VSS for image-level backups.

In terms of performance, I put Todo Backup v2 through a quick test. I had it backup my 10.4 GB partition, which contains 6.01 GB of data. I set compression to maximum but did not encrypt the backup. It took 10 minutes and 34 seconds for the backup to finish while using 35-45% CPU and about 126 MB of RAM (although RAM usage did spike at the beginning for about 10 seconds to 300-350 MB while the error checking was happening; it came down after those initial 10 seconds to the 126 MB level); the backup file ended up being 5.24 GB.

When compared to Todo Backup v1, the CPU usage is about the same but RAM usage is significantly higher; and compression is more or less the same but backup speed is a bit quicker. (Also, although not exactly performance related, it should noted the download size of v2 is about twice as large as the download size of v1.) Of course this comparison is just a quick one so don’t take it as the ultimate truth; I will put Todo Backup v2 through more rigorousness tests when I update my Paragon Backup & Restore Free vs Macrium Reflect Free vs EASEUS Todo Backup vs DriveImage XML vs Acronis True Image Home article.

Last but not least, it appears EASEUS Todo Backup is now called EASEUS Todo Backup Home. This probably is an indicator that a shareware EASEUS Todo Backup Professional will appear in the near future.

Overall, I must say this v2 update to Todo Backup was much needed and is a welcome update. Is EASEUS Todo Backup v2 better than the other free backup software? I don’t know; I will find out when I update my previously mentioned comparison article. However, without a doubt EASEUS Todo Backup v2 is an improvement over v1. You can grab EASEUS Todo Backup Home from the following links:

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About Ashraf

Happily married to the most beautiful woman ever, Ashraf is the founder of dotTech. Ashraf spends insane hours on dotTech (usually writing articles but sometimes doing absolutely nothing except staring). Yes he is weird, but he is also very friendly.

I just cloned my new 300GB HD from a 100GB HD using EASEUS Todo. There was 50GB of used space on the old 100GB drive. Figuring it would take several hours to clone, I left and went to dinner. Got back home 2 hours later and the job was done. Turns out it took ONLY 1hr and 20 mins to complete the task. I was truly amazed on how easy EASEUS Todo is to use. I am using the laptop now that I did this on and have had absolutely no problems! I intend to do this to all 8 of my computers and use the old drives as back-ups.

Also I found out that EASEUS does not make the system quiet using VSS when doing image backups. It only uses VSS for filesystem backups. It was also slower in backing up my system partition than macrium. This seems not so logical to me, as it was also slower when using NO compression. But doing a little further research I found out that EASEUS also completely stores the pagefile.sys in the imagebackup. This does not really make sense and would explain why Easeus Todo Backup ran longer than macrium. Also macrium creates a pagefile.sys in the backup, but this pagefile.sys is artificially created using only zeroed bytes. All in all Easeus Todo gets it job done, and I really like the interface and all that. But the intelligent “under-the-hood” things like using VSS for images (Paragon and Macrium support that (and also newer Acronis versions) and the intelligent skip of “nonsense” files for imagebackup (pagefile.sys, hibernate file) are missing. However it has features not found in other free imaging products: Incremental Backups Sending E-Mail Notifications File-Based Backups AES Encryption

Lawrence Wilcox

Ash – Thanks for the heads up on EASEUS Todo Backup 2. I have been using Acronis True Image Home 10 for sometime (I have never been able to get Paragon Backup to work properly – something about lack of video memory after it has rebooted – will only run in it’s safe mode and it does not ‘see’ USB hard drives so cannot access backup image !) Anyway to get to the point I have downloaded and installed EASEUS Todo Backup 2 – made backup image of my operating system drive ‘C’ – reinstalled it – tested emergency disc – all works great – can access USB drives – seems to me quite a bit faster then Acronis – both in backup and restore. Am changing to it . Regards Laurie

Louis

Hi Ashraf !

Louis from South Africa here — have been debating exactly which balance to strike between using (still of course) a program like this to regularly backing up the system partition, and use a different file backup utility, as per your last article about that, but not really liking the in-between type software like Comodo Time Machine, or Genie Time Line — preferring your plain file backup software, as you had suggested.

( But still having to deal with the “documents and settings ” folder — containing numerous subfolders and files — the giant wombat from Australia one guy classically called it in a post some time ago, with its ever increasing file path names length, way past 255 characters – what a pity MS didn’t actually bring real, not just cosmetic, change in functionality to Win 7 up from Win XP Pro Sp 3, by vastly extending this irritable shortcoming ).

Now wondering if I shouldn’t just use the new file based backup facility to in fact back up the whole “documents and settings” folder on a daily basis, together with all the other critical data files on my Data only partition, all together at the same daily backup ?

This seems to bring to the table a 4th possibility of effectively backing up all user data daily ( the other three possible ways being – 1- plain file backup software – 2- the in-between crossbreed type backup software, as per the two mentioned above, and – 3 – the least efficient making of an “all data on the user data partition” disk image file, no selectiveness possible, and also needing to make a “full system drive all or nothing” daily system partition, just to be able to have a daily backup of the all important “documents and settings” folder and it’s multitude of subfolders.)

This 4th possibility of making, granted it still being an image file, but one in which the whole “documents and settings” folder with all its subfolders included, and only critical data files, or all data files, can be selectively chosen —- seems to be the closest to a faster and most efficient manner of backing up said critical user data files on a daily basis ?

— please Ashraf, your opinion on the issue, decision not quite made — there are sure to be holes in my thinking that I overlooked.

And to bring some functional information to the forum, and not just asking the above :

Indeed, as you state, it took a mighty search to find out how to create a WinPE based recovery disk, and not have to use the relatively less functional Linux based disk.

I did find the solution after “some” searching , heheh, and here is it :

Yes, a WinPE recovery disk can definitely be made , also in the now V2 Home, free, not yet shareware, version :

It is, putting it simply, a BartPE based EASEUS Todo Backup bootable CD. A kind of marriage between straight BartPE, and elements of EASEUS Todo Backup V2 Home, if you will.

Full and detailed instructions on exactly how to create this ‘McGafter’, can be found at this URL :

I have to agree with you Ashraf, why they chose to play hide and seek with this information, is beyond my ability to understand, for surely, when the pawpaw hits the fan, no matter how brilliant the software, your life depends on one little dvd / cd, called the ( hopefully WinPE based ) disaster recovery disk !!

[ the option of making a bootable usb drive, is limited to it being a FAT32 drive, NTFS not possible ].

Ashraf, you’re the man !!! For being the first to bring this to our attention, and to me personally, at exactly the right time —-

Please shoot some holes into my consideration at the start of the post, of the new 4 th option regarding a “selective user data files & entire doc’s and settings folder ” daily data disk image backup as your primary daily file backup strategy, as opposed to the still same as always “regular whole system partition” disc image backup, for disaster recovery — that is, if you have the time !

Regards and thanks

* A Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone !!

Unicorn02

I made some tests with Easeus Todo Backup V2.0 and here are my findings: The new version has VSS support, BUT this support is only used when doing file based backups. (check with “vssadmin list shadows” during the backup). Macrium and Paragon Imaging-Products are also able to quiesce the system using VSS when doing image-based backups in contrast to EASEUS. Personally I still prefer Macrium Reflect for that very reason, but also for size and ease of use. Macrium Reflect installed size: 28,2 MB Easeus Todo Backup installed size: 111 MB Macrium Boot ISO: 7,8 MB (!!!) Easeus Boot ISO: 43,2 MB

My personal verdict: If you can miss encryption of backups and file-based backups, then Macrium Reflect free is still the way to go.

div

This is good sw and i do intent to use it on most of my comps…

Himagain

Hi there and Happy Solstice and a good New Year! I too would like to know if it is possible to genuinely clone your hard drive to install on a new machine.

Cheers!

Tortuga

Dear Ash

Obrigada, Merci beaucoup, Thanks, Gracias!! Great information. It will take me a few moons to digest all that :*)

Wow, you’ve been quite busy lately. Hardly have time to read everything!! You should go outside & play in the snow, gives us time to catch up – When It Rains, It Pours! ArkArkArk

Peace

Iouri

Thanks a lot Ashraf. You’ve done a good job again. All the best to you. Happy New Year.

Sherwood Tucker

I have 2 ask…:D When it says migrate from one HD to another does that mean that it will only clone to a new HD on the present PC OR Clone from one computer to a new/different computer with all of the installed programs and their settings? I just went through a series of support emails with Paragon. Bottom line is on their system there are several choices P2V P2V adjust P2V adjust OS The last choice is only found on their “pro” model Apparently (according to them) the settings on a new computer are different than the original (of course) and yu can not take a recular clone and copy to a new computer??? For those who have done this, you know what a pain it is to re-install every program as well as the OS.

janetb

ASHRAF

My main problem with GFI was that it does not support non-Latin fonts, so all your Hebrew/Arabic/Asian languages etc. come out as rows of question marks…:-(….Do you know if this app supports non-Latin languages?

PS GFI said the foreign characters within documents are saved—just not file and folder names.

Ram

I meant Handy not Hany.. Can u also plz compare it with the best free backup and restore software(file backup)??

Ram

Hi Ashraf,

Thanks for reviewing the Easeus Todo Backup v2.

Can you please add Hany Backup review some day?? And also please let me know whether it is worth to try/buy it??